This story was submitted by Juliet Wilson of Menlo Park, parent of a player.
Since the inception of MP Striker FC — the competitive soccer club in Menlo Park — players, coaches and parents have been improving the level of play and quality of the Striker organization.
That development process took a major step forward this past summer with help of Frans Hoek, Andrew Ziemer and other coaches and players from top teams in Holland.
The Dutch are famous for their youth development programs; in fact, most youth programs in the world are modeled on these methods. Frans Hoek and the coaches came here to help us learn age-appropriate coaching for accelerated player development.
This was a rich learning experience for players, coaches and parents alike. We had some 300 players receive daily instruction from coaches experienced in building some of the most successful youth programs.
Twelve host families in Atherton, Woodside and Menlo Park opened their homes for the visiting Dutch coaches. The week ended with a celebration and send-off of the visiting coaches — from the Dutch Goose, of course.
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